The typical home entertainment system consists of a variety of different consumer electronic devices which present and record audio/visual media in different ways. For instance, consumer electronic media devices include television (TV) sets, compact disc (CD) players, set-top-boxes, digital video disc (DVD) players, personal computer (PC) systems, video cameras, video cassette recorders (VCRs), and the like. Furthermore, there are several different ways to communicatively couple together these types of consumer electronic media devices.
Recently, a class of consumer electronic media devices has been introduced that can be networked together using a standard communication protocol layer (e.g., IEEE 1394 communication standard). The IEEE 1394 standard is an international standard for implementing an inexpensive high-speed serial bus architecture which supports both asynchronous and isochronous format data transfers. The IEEE 1394 standard provides a high-speed serial bus for interconnecting digital devices thereby providing universal input/output connection. The IEEE 1394 standard defines a digital interface for applications thereby eliminating the need for an application to covert digital data to an analog form before it is transmitted across the bus. Correspondingly, a receiving application will receive digital data from the bus, not analog data and will therefore not be required to convert analog data to digital form. The IEEE 1394 standard is ideal for consumer electronics communication in part because devices can be added to or removed from the serial bus while the bus is active. If a device is so added or removed, the bus automatically reconfigures itself for transmitting data between the then existing devices. Each device on the bus is a "node" and contains its own address space.
The provision of the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus for networking consumer electronic devices has introduced a powerful new platform on which device functionality and inter-operability can be built. But there are disadvantages associated with consumer electronic media devices networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial bus. One disadvantage is that some consumer electronic media devices are unable to communicate with other devices, thereby rendering them incompatible. These communication incompatibilities arise because there are many different companies, standard bodies, and organizations utilizing the IEEE 1394 bus for varying purposes. For instance, different consumer electronic media devices can utilize different communication protocols while being compliant with the IEEE 1394 bus. As a result, some consumer electronic media devices are unable to communicate even though they are designed to be compliant with the IEEE 1394 bus. This results in a very unpleasant experience for a customer who owns two or more consumer electronic media devices (e.g., a set-top-box and a VCR) which are unable to function together because they communicate using different protocols.
Another disadvantage associated with consumer electronic media devices networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial bus is that some existing devices are not upgradeable in the field when new technology is developed. As such, the non-upgradeable consumer electronic media devices are typically unable to benefit from the new technology, thereby limiting the overall functionality provided to their users. Furthermore, as technology for the IEEE 1394 bus continues to improve and change, the non-upgradeable consumer electronic media devices could eventually be unable to communicate with other consumer electronic media devices utilizing the IEEE 1394 bus.
Furthermore, another disadvantage associated with consumer electronic media devices networked together by the 1394 serial bus is that some types of consumer electronic media devices are so limited in resources that they are unable to provide certain features or capabilities which are or later become useful or desirable to their users. This disadvantage is typically associated with consumer electronic media devices which are specifically manufactured with limited resources in order to be competitively priced for consumers. For example, an inexpensive VCR is typically only fabricated with a minimal amount of Read Only Memory (ROM) enabling it to perform its basic functionality. As such, the VCR is unable to provide its user other desirable capabilities and functions. Therefore, consumer electronic media devices having limited resources can by their nature only provided limited functionality to their users.
Another disadvantage associated with consumer electronic media devices networked together by the 1394 serial bus is that some of them are accidentally manufactured with defects or "bugs" within their software. As such, the defective software inhibits the normal operation of the consumer electronic media devices according to their given set of operational specifications. Consequently, the defective consumer electronic media devices are typically returned in order to correct any defects within the software because they are not ordinarily correctable in the field. In the end, an owner of a defective consumer electronic media device typically expends time and/or money rectifying the defect.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that enables incompatible consumer electronic media devices networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus to communicate with each other. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that enables new functionality to be provided in the field to existing consumer electronic media devices networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus. Moreover, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that enables consumer electronic media devices manufactured with limited resources, which are networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus, to exhibit increased functionality for their users. Additionally, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that enables defective software utilized within consumer electronic media devices, which are networked together by the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus, to be corrected or updated in the field. The present invention provides these advantages. These and other advantages of the present invention not specifically mentioned above will become clear within discussions of the present invention presented herein.